U.N. plan for local ceasefires in Syria "frozen" - diplomats

BEIRUT, Feb 5 (Reuters) - A United Nations plan for local
ceasefires in Syria is deadlocked, with Damascus feeling it does
not need to make concessions to disparate armed groups, Western
diplomats familiar with the talks said.

Since October, U.N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura has
been working on a plan to broker "local freezes", starting in
the northern city of Aleppo, to alleviate fighting that has
killed more than 200,000 people in four years; 2,700 of them in
January alone, according to a monitoring group.

Both the United Nations and the government say talks
continue but diplomats say there is no progress. "The freeze is
frozen. It is just going from bad to worse," one said.

Reuters could not reach Syrian government officials to
comment on the ceasefire talks. A Lebanese analyst familiar with
the Syrian government's thinking said Damascus felt the U.N.
team had not paid enough attention to the threat of jihadists
crossing into Syria.

De Mistura's difficult start illustrates how hard it is to
advance any kind of diplomatic initiative in Syria. The
government sees no immediate need to make a deal on the ground
while the other side is not one but many factions.

Aleppo, Syria's second city, is at the heart of clashes
between government forces and allied militia and a range of
insurgents which include al Qaeda's Syria wing Nusra Front,
Islamist brigades, foreign fighters in other groups and
Western-backed rebels.

A second diplomat said talks between the U.N. team and the
government had reached a stalemate because Damascus wanted to
model the plan on previous truces that effectively forced rebels
to surrender and the United Nations wants to avoid this.

"There is no reason for the regime to enter into the freeze,
they believe they are militarily doing quite well, that they
could potentially close the corridor to Aleppo and put it under
siege," the diplomat said.

What the government wants would resemble one of the
"enforced truces that the regime forces through sieges" in
neighbourhoods in Damascus and Homs, the diplomat added.

A visit planned by de Mistura to Damascus was postponed last
month. He had met with President Bashar al-Assad in November.

A senior U.S. military defence official said earlier this
week that the military was likely to try to encircle Aleppo this
year, cut rebel supply lines, and besiege the fighters.

"We assess the conflict is trending in the Assad regime's
favour," Lt. Gen. Vince Stewart, head of the Defense
Intelligence Agency, told a panel in the House of
Representatives.

Elsewhere in the country the Syrian army mainly holds land
in the south and west, including most of its urban centres. The
hardline Islamic State holds large tracts of land to the east
and north and is being targeted by U.S.-led air strikes.

TURKISH BORDER

The Lebanese analyst, Nasser Qandil, said one of the main
problems with the freeze talks was that the United Nations did
not seem willing to fully address other issues, such as how to
deal with the Turkish border, where Damascus says jihadists are
crossing into Syria.

Turkey has denied supporting hardliners but backs mainstream
insurgent groups and hosts the political opposition.

Qandil said the U.N. envoy had agreed with Assad that
securing the Turkish border, which lies north of Aleppo, should
come under any ceasefire plan but appeared to backtrack when he
visited the Turkey-based opposition.

Asked to respond to his comments, a spokeswoman for de
Mistura said consultations were continuing and the U.N. was
talking to a wide range of combatants. "For us in the U.N., it's
very clear who is a terrorist and who is not a terrorist," she
said, referring to Security Council resolutions.

De Mistura, who took the position after two earlier envoys
quit in frustration, is seeking to prevent a repeat of a truce
in the Western city of Homs in May, where more than 1,000
insurgents withdrew and the government took over most parts.

The government had allowed hundreds of civilians to leave
the city in February after lengthy U.N. mediation.

The U.N. also wants to avoid relocation of Syrian troops
from Aleppo to other parts of Syria if a deal is reached,
diplomats said.

Addressing the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European
Parliament in Brussels late on Monday, de Mistura said the
negotiations were continuing but were not easy.

"We all knew that having a freeze and not a classical old
fashioned ceasefire is going to be a complicated one but we are
pushing and will never give up," he said.

Rebel groups in the north also expressed early misgivings
about the plan, fearing it would benefit the army.

In an interview last month, Assad suggested the plan should
resemble previous truces.

"We implemented it in another city called Homs, another big
city. We implemented it on smaller scales in different, let's
say, suburbs, villages, and so on, and it succeeded," he told
Foreign Affairs magazine. "So the idea is very good."

He said he would be willing to "deal directly" with rebels
for a settlement in Syria but said most fighters were jihadists.

There was also concern among Western officials about how to
get Nusra Front on board for an Aleppo truce, diplomats said.
One said de Mistura's team had been told by rebel fighters they
could rally the group if needed.
(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut, Adrian Croft
in Brussels, Tom Miles in Geneva and David Alexander in
Washington; editing by Philippa Fletcher)